- Who was Elizabeth Sizemore Franklin?
Elizabeth Sizemore Franklin is an important figure in our story although little is known of her and the available evidence is conflicting.
For example, her 1771 date of birth in the 1860 census seems questionable given that childbearing would have begun at age 31. The 1850 census (where she is living with her son, Thomas) gives 1790. The 1830 and 1840 census place the date range as 40 to 49, which places the DOB around 1790. However, if Martin is a son (b. ca. 1800), then this is clearly incorrect. Thus, there is no assurance that Martin is her son.
Additionally, the sole source for her maiden name comes from the ECA of granddaughter Lou Miles Bryars, given there as Sithmore.
The relationship to Arthur Sizemore, who left a larger historical footprint, is unknown at present.
According to Poarch historians Vickery and Travis, Arthur was the progenitor of the Tensaw family that bore his name. He and wife Polly Bailey (1759-1862) produced at least eight children. For their part, the Baileys were well-known to Indian Superintendent William Hawkins as a troublesome mixed family in the Upper Creek Nation and figured prominently in the Creek Civil War of 1813. Arthur lineage is less well known, although most of the records acknowledge his mixed heritage. He died intestate and so provision for the children (some being deceased) was made per stipes. No awards were made to Elizabeth Franklin; thus, the relationship, if any, would be collateral.
The rub comes In 1908, when Tom Tate Tunstall asserted in a deposition that the Franklins were white. Tate is not easily dismissed. He spent part of his career in service of the diplomatic corp of the United States, with a stint for the Confederacy thrown in for good measure. Tate's knowledge of the Tensaw Creeks was also formidable, his grandfather being David Tate, the nephew of the Creek power broker, Alexander McGillivray and half-brother of the warrior who led the assault on Ft. Mims, Billy Weatherford.
Yet Tate's deposition is not without problems: He identifies Sam Moniac as Scotch, a remarkable error. Moniac was his grandfather's brother-in-law, a Creek who is well-known in the historical record. Tate also is mistaken about the Boones, Tarvins and Gibsons, families which were kith and kin in the nascent Poarch community. The deposition is reproduced in a note, below.
Tunstall notwithstanding, a number of Franklin descendants filed claims with Guion Miller alleging native blood, and not just by Elizabeth. The same year as Tunstall's deposition, Lucretia Miles Bryars identified her grandmother as a "Sithmore" and claimed her as Cherokee. (Her grandfather, Thomas, was claimed as half-Creek by the family. She recalled that he, being of dark complexion with course, black hair, lived with her family until his death in about 1843.) Bryars then went on to claim an unspecified relationship to several families that descended from Arthur Sizemore.
Whatever we're to make of this, Tunstall does identify the Hollingers as Indian and so, at least in this respect, a Franklin did marry into a well-known metis family. The youngest of the Franklin daughters, Elizabeth, married Jefferson Hollinger (b. 1810) around 1840. Jeff was the son of Billy Hollinger (1785-1860), one of Andrew Jackson's Indian scouts and a survivor the Ft. Mims massacre. William's father, Adam (d. 1808), was an Irish back-country trader who operated a ferry across the Alabama River in cooperation with Samuel Mims. Billy was baptized at Sam Mim's place after his father's marriage into the Lefluer family of Mobile and he then went to live with the Tates, a fact best explained by Creek matrilineal tradition.
Granddaughter Levitia Hollinger was living with Elizabeth Franklin by 1860. (Levitia is enumerated in the 1850 household of Jefferson and Elizabeth.) It is assumed that Elizabeth Franklin Hollinger was dead by 1852, inasmuch as Jefferson was remarried and no other record for her has been found. Jeff's second wife was Elizabeth Harris, the widow of George Sizemore- a son of Arthur. They had a son, Adam, in 1857.
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| Notes |
- Creek Test. P. 9-12. Thomas Tate Tunstall, #30048:l which appeared in CHEROKEE BY BLOOD/ Records of Eastern Cherokee Ancestry in the U.S. Court of Claims /1906-1910 / Volume 8
Creek Test. P. 9-12. Thomas Tate Tunstall, #30048:
I am 84 years old and born in Baldwin Co., Ala., April 8, 1823. I was Consul to Cadis, Spain, a period of six years under Pierce and Buchannan. I was again Consul to San Salvador under Cleveland's Administration. I claim my indian blood through my mother, Louise Tate, who was the daughter of David Tate and David Tate was the son of Sehoye McGillivrary. Seyhoye McGillivrary was the mother of Billy Weatherford. After the death of my great grandfather, Sehoye McGillivivary married Charles Weatherford, and the chief Billy Weatherford was their child, and the junior half-brother of my grandfather, David Tate. Sizemores intermarried in my family. He was a Creek indian-very dark. I knew William Sizemore personally. I know his son, Alex, and all his daughter. Alex Sizemore married into the Weatherford family also. David Moniac was a nephew of David Tate and a graduate of West Point Military Academy and served in the U.S. Army. He was killed in 1836 at the massacre of Withlacoochee. Moniac's father was a Scotchman but his mother was a Creek indian. I knew him well. Samuel and Susan Moniac were relations of David and belonged to the same people. Old Billy Hollinger was a Creek Indian. I knew him very well- a Creek Indian, too, and a relation of my father. I know Jeff Hollinger, son of Billy Hollinger, and I knew him well. I knew Old William Colbert, a good old indian. He was a Creek Indian and lived among us and died about 35 years ago. He was an older man than my father and dressed like an indian. Margart Tate was the second wife of my grandfather, David. She was a widow Powell. She was Originally a Dyer. They were a Creek family. Seminole means "run away" in the Creek language. Jeff Hollinger's wife was a Miss Franklin, but the Franklins themselves were white people. The old man Linn McGhee was Scotch and indian-Scotch and Creek Indian. He was one of my grandfather's stock minders, and his children were all mulattoes. The woman he lived with was one of my old grandfather's slaves. They were Creek indians. Simon Hadley was a white man and no relation to the Tunstalls. I never heard of Lousia Jonnaghan nor Mrs. Wm. Johnson. They are no relations of mine. I knew the old man Boon- Elijah and John Boon were his sons. They had no indian in them. Nor the Tarbins. I do not know of any Indians called Chuck or Shomac Indians. I knew the Steadmans. Reben Steadham, the son of John Steadham on his mother's side, Traced back to Linn McGhee. I knew Gideon Gibson. He was a white man. His wife was one of those Indian Moniacs. She was a sister of Old Sam Moniac. I know the Barlows. They are Thad, Euriah and Bob Barlow. They were good people but white people with no indian at all. I never heard of a Red Jacket Treaty. I know Mrs. C. M. Killiam. She is a neice of Billy Weatherford. We went to school together. She is a cousin of mine. In the neighborhood of Mt. Pleasant in Baldwim and Monroe Countries, Ala. I never knew any Choctaw Indians living there, nor Cherokees. They never got down that far. The Choctaws were Mississippi Indians and the Cherokees were Georgia Indians.
SIGNED
Tom Tate Tunstall
Mobile, Ala.
Feb 6, 1908.
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